Finishing welt



y 3 R. c. SCHEMMEL 1,869,080

FINISHING WELT Filed June 14, 1930 13 0562 8 6. 6ckemrmel Patented duly 26, 1932 UNITED STATES ROBERT C. SCHEMMEL, QB UNION CITY, INDIANA Application filed June 14,

My invention relates to finishing strips, including welts, gimps and bindings, used in trimming furniture, the bodies of automobiles, etc., and also to a novel type oftextile fabric especially adapted to use in formin a superior type of finishing strip.

ore especially my invention relates to trimming means of the type known as blind nail, i. e., those which are designed to be m secured in place by means of nails, tacks, etc., passed through one portion of the welt, gimp or binding, and which are provided with another portion which, in final, applied position of the article, is adapted to cover and u conceal the tack or nail heads.

My invention contemplates the inclusion of pliable wire or analogous materialin the body of the welt or other trimming element for the purpose of holding the tack concealing portion securely down upon the tack receiving portion, and consists, therefore, 1n certain improvements on the types of welt described in my two prior United States Patents, Nos. 1,528,699, issued March 3, 1925,

a and 1,719,729, issued July 2, 1929.

In the types of finishing welt disclosed in my two prior patents pliable wire is associated with the body of the welt for the double purpose of maintaining the tack concealing flap spaced away from the tack receiving base during the tacking operation and of maintaining these two parts in close contacting relation after completion of the tacking.

In the first of my prior patents-the fabric material from which the welt isfo rmed is provided at regular intervals with continuous wire weft or transverse threads, extending completely across the width of the strip, the intermediate weft threads being of the 40 usual cotton or the like. This construction is subject to two objections: First, the employment of the relatively large amount of wire is expensive, and secondly, the wire strands form plainly'noticeable ridges or corrugations wherever they occur across the entire width of the completed welt structure. In practice this not only makes for unsightly appearance, but becomes functionally objectionable after a moderate period of use of the welt, since the wires eventually crack through their' 1930. Serial No. 461,209.

overlying leatherizing coating to cause disintegration of the coating and exposure of the wires.

Welts constructed according to the teaching of my second prior patent are free from the second of the above noted objections, but they are bulky because of. the inclusion in the completed welt structure of a separate layer of wire weft fabric, and they are expensive to make because of the necessity of first forming the separate layer, doping the same to retain the wires in the fabric, and

of types of gimps and bindings as well, 7

and that therefore the term finishing strip as used in the following specification and claims is to be understood as including within its extension any type of relatively long and narrow trimming element adapted for use so in'uphol'stery and automobile body trimming arts.

. In the accompanying drawing which forms part of this application for Letters Patent. and in which like reference characters designate the same parts in the several views,

Fi ure 1 is a cross sectional view of a strip of fabric constructed according to the principles of my present invention;

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the fabric strip of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the manner of forming the fabric strip into a welt;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, with one end 96 in cross section, of a welt formed from the materials of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of a gimp made from the strip of Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 6 is a bottomplan view of the gimp 100 of Fig. 5 opened up prior to being applied; and

Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view of a modified type of welt.

Referring now to the drawing and first to Figs. 1 and 2, the reference numeral 1 designates a single length of pliable wire of indefinite length which is folded back and forth upon itself so that adjacent convolutions lie in a single plane and form a relatively narrow web with a series of loops along both longitudinal edges. Longitudinal threads 2 and transverse threads 3, all of fibrous material such as cotton or the like, are interwoven with the wire 1 to complete the composite fabric clearly shown in Fig. 2.

The fibrous threads are engaged with the wire loops and extend beyond the longitudinal edges of the folded wire a relatively short distance on one side and a longer distance on the other side thereof, so that the composite fabric may be disposed about a pair of fillers 4 and 5 of the usual type, in the manner shown in Fig. 3, to form a welt as shown in Fig. 4. It is important that the areas of the wire and fibrous threads in the fabric be proportioned, and the fillers be placed therein, in such a way that the wire area shall extend across the line of fold in the fabric upon which the larger, tack-concealing filler is hinged to the base portion of the welt, since it is an object of the invention to make this hinged connection comparatively stiff and pliable, as has been explained.

Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate a modification, in which the composite fabric of Figs. 1 and 2 is formed into a gimp, i. e., a trimming strip adapted in general forthe same uses and purposes as a welt, but characterized by the absence of fillers. The gimp is made by employing a relatively narrow fabric strip and hemming both edges beyond the outer limits of the wire area, as shown at 6 in Figs. 5 and 6. The wire area extends intermediate the hemmed edges, and the strip is adapted to be folded substantially along its longitudinal center line across the transverse wires after tacks or the like have been passed through the strip relatively near one edge thereof.

Fig. 7 illustrates a further modification, which comprises a welt in general similar in appearance and identical in uses and operation with the welt of Fig. l, except that the modified welt is produced by weaving the lon gitudinal edges of the fabric to intermediate portions thereof after the fillers have been introduced. This construction eliminates the use of cement required in the folded structure of Fig. 4.

While the fabric strip from which are formed the welts and gimps which constitute the present invention may be produced in any convenient way, I prefer to manufacture the same by weaving wire and fibrous thread together in a single operatlon of the m.

aeeaoeo The wire is set up on a spool at the back of a standard loom, with a minimum of tension thereon, and is caught by the filling thread as it proceeds from side to side of the loom and is pulled part of the distance across 7 ciples of the present invention may, of course,

be of any convenient weave and design. prefer, however, to use and hence have illustrated, the type of material known as coach lace, which is a comparatively heavy fabric provided with a tufted area or areas. llhe tufted areas are best disposed along those portions of the fabric strip which will be exposed on the upper surface of the finished welt, thus not only adding to the ornamental appearance of the welt, but serving also toconceal from view the interwoven wire 1.

It is to be understood that I have shown and described herein the invention in a preferred form of embodiment merely by way of illustration. Other'and further modifications will suggest themselves to persons skilled in the art, and all such modifications, to the extent that they embody the principles of theinvention as pointed out in the appended claims, are to be deemed within the scope and purview thereof.

Having thus described my present invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A finishing strip including a fabric body folded on itself to provide a tack receiving base and a tack concealing flap, said body having threads of woven fibrous material extending from edge to edge of the body and pliable metallic wire interwoven with the fibrous threads and extending only across an area of the body spaced inwardly from the edges thereof, said interwoven wire area extending across and slightly beyond the line of fold common to the base and flap portions of the finishing strip.

2. A finishing strip including a fabric body folded on itself to provide a tack receiving base and a tack concealing flap, said body having threads of woven fibrous material extending from edge to edge of the body and a single continuous pliable metallic wire interwoven with the fibrous threads and extending only across an area of the body spaced inwardly from the edges thereof, said interwoven wire area extending across and slightly beyond the line of fold common to the base and flap portions of the finishing strip.

3. A finishing strip as claimed in claim 1 in which a portion of the fabric adjacent the wired area of the flap is provided with a plurality of surface tufts which overlie and conceal the wire.

4. A finishing strip as claimed in claim 1 in which the flap contains a solid core and in mmum which "the fabric eencloses the core, a pmvfiom of the Wired area of the fabric emamding over a, portimm of the upper surface of the eore, the purtion of the fabric adjacent the Wired area, of the flap being provide& with a plurality of surface tufts which overlie and wnceal the wire.

In testimony whereof I'aflix my si mature ROBERT C. SCHE: 2*; 

